PITTSBURGH - The third-party defendant joined Sept. 6 in the chicken jerky dog treat litigation consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania was granted a stay on Dec. 17, and the parties were compelled to submit the third-party claims to arbitration (In re Milo's...

ATLANTA - The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 affirmed a decision requiring an expert to produce certain documents for use in foreign proceedings, finding that the materials did not contain any core opinion work product of Chevron Corp.'s attorneys (Republic of Ecuador, et al. v. Chevron...

NEW YORK - The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on Dec. 17 announced that it has reached an agreement with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to settle a class action filed by tenants who claim that their apartments contain mold, resulting in a plan to resolve the widespread mold issues...

SEATTLE - A Washington federal judge declared a mistrial in an asbestos action after the jury reported Dec. 16 that it was deadlocked and that additional deliberation was unlikely to change the result (Joanne K. Lipson, et al. v. ON Marine Services Co. LLC, Ferro Engineering Division, No. 13-1747, W...

ATLANTA - A unanimous 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the issuance of an order compelling Chevron Corp. and one of its experts to produce some 1,200 documents to the Republic of Ecuador to permit the country to defend the $9 billion judgment against Chevron in the Lago Agrio litigation...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A southern Ohio water utility seeking declaratory judgment and indemnification from DuPont for perfluorooctanoic acid contamination of its water well field in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio failed to meet its burden for the imposition of sanctions for the conduct...

ORANGEBURG, S.C. - A federal judge in South Carolina on Dec. 23 denied motions to compel filed by the federal government and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), ruling that a deposition notice did not require a company's representative to produce information about...

HONOLULU - The sophisticated user doctrine applies in both negligence and strict liability contexts under maritime law, but a manufacturer does not prevail because it cannot show that it considered whether the U.S. Navy would provide the necessary warnings about the hazards of asbestos, a Hawaii federal...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - An estate whose representative opted out of Engle v. Liggett Group Inc. (945 So. 2d 1246 [Fla. 2006]) and failed to file her wrongful death lawsuit within the statute of limitations may not take advantage of claim tolling offered by class membership, Florida's First District Court...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - An estate whose representative opted out of Engle v. Liggett Group Inc. (945 So. 2d 1246 $(Fla. 2006$)) and failed to file a wrongful death lawsuit within the statute of limitations may not take advantage of claim tolling offered by class membership, the First District Florida Court...

MUSKOGEE, Okla. - Defense motions to dismiss a first amended class action complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Oklahoma alleging air, soil and water contamination from the disposal of oil and natural gas well completion waste and coal combustion waste were dismissed in part...

NEW YORK - A plaintiffs' expert modified a widely accepted testing criteria before concluding that a defendant's talc contained asbestos, a New York justice held Jan. 9 in precluding James Millette's testimony under Frye (Lawrence Bernard and Marilyn Bernard, et al. v. Brookfield Properties...

NEW ORLEANS - A 2-1 panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 10 affirmed a decision by the federal judge in Louisiana overseeing claims stemming from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and ensuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to approve a $9.2 billion settlement agreement...

DENVER - A federal judge in Colorado on Jan. 8 granted in part an environmental group's motion for summary judgment in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, finding that some information withheld by the agency was not protected by the work product...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The owners of two Charleston-area restaurants, along with a resident, filed a class action suit on Jan. 11 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to represent some 300,000 customers of a Charleston water utility who were placed under a declaration of...

SEATTLE - A Washington federal judge impermissibly delegated his role as gatekeeper under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc. (509 U.S. 579 $(1993$)) to the jury when he admitted two experts and "each and every" exposure testimony in an asbestos case that produced a $10.2 million verdict, a...

CHICAGO - Certification of a class of southern Illinois residents who claim that the value of their properties was affected by an underground plume from the leak of benzene-contaminated petroleum products from a nearby refinery was vacated Jan. 17 by the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which said...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Listening to arguments by Kansas about Nebraska's violation of a 2006 Republican River water rights settlement, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer on Oct. 14 asked Nebraska's lawyer: "Is there any chance that you all could work this out?" (State of Kansas...

SAN FRANCISCO - Chevron Corp., which is being sued by plaintiffs who allege that the company is liable for damages related to the explosion of one its natural gas rigs in Nigeria, on June 24 filed a brief in a California federal court asking it to compel the plaintiffs to produce litigation funding documents...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - A federal judge in Indiana on July 11 denied a couple's motion to remand its groundwater contamination case to state court on grounds that the defendant's motion to remand was timely and that the local controversy to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) did not apply (Amos...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A group of residents on Oct. 14 filed a brief in a Tennessee federal court arguing that it should certify a class action against CSX Transportation Inc. and another railroad company related to a spill of toxic chemicals that resulted from a train derailment based on the need to evacuate...

CHICAGO - A federal judge in Illinois on Jan. 25 ruled that an expert opinion provided by a village that sued two companies alleging groundwater contamination from vinyl chloride that leaked into the water system was "sufficiently reliable," and he refused to exclude it from evidence (Village...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - A federal judge in Indiana on Jan. 25 denied a company's motion seeking a case management order referred to as a Lone Pine order in a trichloroethylene (TCE) groundwater contamination case, concluding that such an order should be used only in "exceptional cases" (Amos...

DETROIT - A group of Michigan residents on Aug. 8 filed a class action against Ford Motor Co. in Michigan state court contending that the company is liable for groundwater contamination as a result of leaking "highly toxic chemicals" from its facility in Livonia, Mich. (Bruce Tenniswood, et...